Looking at the Deeper Meaning Behind the Solar Eclipse

A total solar eclipse is one of nature’s most awe-inspiring events. In those brief enchanting minutes, the natural becomes the supernatural. The solar eclipse of 2017 was an incredible visual spectacle that many JourneyCare staff members shared as we gathered in The Waud Family Healing Garden and at our other locations. Not only did we share protective glasses so everyone safely experienced the eclipse firsthand, but we also took the time to meditate together focusing on our personal and communal growth.

Eclipses upset the natural order as day becomes night and night becomes day. An eclipse has historically acted as a symbolic portal for exponential growth, a time of rapid change, internally and externally. The moon is associated with our subconscious desires and our emotional lives. It is most closely associated with our intuition and our ability to nurture both ourselves and others, something we work hard on to excel at here at JourneyCare. It’s a time to harvest and reap what we’ve sown, throw out the weeds! A solar eclipse is a time to focus on internal change.

The sun represents our focus on our most personal desires, goals and our external self. It signifies our personality, self-expression and the tangible ways we interact in the world. It represents the personal significance of our goals and desires and who we are at our most outgoing.

A solar eclipse provokes changes that are more external when events outside of us might get in the way of what we want and the path we must take to get there. The changes the solar eclipse ushers in are positive and help us achieve our dreams.

In JourneyCare’s bereavement department, we understand and appreciate the symbolic nature of a total eclipse. Losing a loved one can feel like a total eclipse of the heart (to borrow from Bonnie Tyler’s song) and is one of life’s most difficult challenges. But just like the eclipse, (with the moon symbolizing a change within us and the sun symbolizing how our external world has changed) slowly over time, the sun will come back as we adjust to the changes and embark on our new life, our new normal.

If you are having trouble processing your grief and adjusting to the loss of a loved one, please call us on the Bereavement Counseling Line at 224-770-2273.